By Scott Wong (swong@politico.com or @scottwongDC)
RO KHANNA: I’M NO TECHIE – The former Obama administration official taking on fellow Democrat and veteran Rep. Mike Honda in Silicon Valley, may have Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Mayer and Eric Schmidt in his corner. Just don’t call him a techie.
In an wide-ranging interview with Huddle at a Starbucks near Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Ro Khanna went out of his way to distance himself from the “techie” label that’s defined his campaign for the past year. “I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’ve never started a company. I’ve got a middle-class background and am still paying off student loans. I went to public schools. If anything, I took more philosophy and economics classes than computer science and technology classes. … My voice is not one of Silicon Valley. Because of my life experiences, I see some of these structural changes taking place, globalization, technology, and I have ideas about how we can allow middle-class families and their kids to participate in this economy. …
– “I’m not a techie. I wish I were. I wish I were worth a billion dollars and started a company. … I have access to people who are technology leaders and thought leaders but I come from the perspective of someone who is not part of that world. And I’ve criticized tech companies for a lack of representation of Asian Americans at their highest ranks, with a lack of women, with a lack of African American and Latino employees. … I’m not supporting the pack policy interest of these companies.
– Khanna, 37, a patent lawyer and former deputy assistant secretary in the Commerce Department, knocked Honda for having a thin legislative record and failing to articulate any sort of economic vision for the future. But Khanna acknowledged that he had praised the seven-term congressman publicly in the past: “I said Mike Honda is an honorable person who’s had a distinguished career in public service. I’ve said he’s been a go-to person on national Asian American issues. I believe that Mike Honda has helped national Asian American candidates run for office, people like Ami Bera. … I just don’t think he’s understands or is the right leader to represent Silicon Valley. And I don’t think there is any intellectual inconsistency with that. …
– “He has focused on issues of civil liberties and civil rights. So there is a complete difference in expertise and focus in what we want to achieve. It’s up to the voters to decide whose experience and background better matches the times and the district. My view is that this district — which is the heart of Apple, Yahoo, Intel, Cisco, LinkedIn, Google, Tesla and middle class folks from all of those areas — will pick someone with economic expertise and background.
– While Khanna thinks it’s time for Honda to go, he wouldn’t say the same for other longtime Silicon Valley Democrats: “I think Anna Eshoo is very different. She has called for transparency in the procurement process. Recently, she was outspoken as a leader when the NSA debate happened. She would have the support of almost all the tech leaders who are supporting me. Many of them would support Zoe Lofgren. … They know Anna Eshoo, they like Anna Eshoo, they think Anna Eshoo has been a champion for Silicon Valley. It is night and day. She’s far more effective, and Zoe has done substantive work on SOPA and PIPA.”
REID’S 2014 GAME PLAN: SOME BIPARTISANSHIP – Burgess Everett writes for POLITICO: “Harry Reid is aiming for a dash of bipartisanship in his election-year game plan. The Senate majority leader will still push long-shot measures, like paycheck fairness and hiking the minimum wage, designed to appeal to his party’s base. But now he’s considering taking up bills that some Republicans actually support, too, like a manufacturing bill and a prison reform measure. It’s a marked shift from the widely held belief among members of both parties that Senate Democrats will hold votes this year only on proposals that stress their political message — a strategy in line with the Nevada Democrat’s goal of keeping the Senate in Democratic hands in the 2014 election. … Passing some bills — even if they’re modest ones — could help rehabilitate the image of the entire chamber, which has grown more bitterly partisan since Reid last fall activated the ‘nuclear option’ rules change that eliminated filibusters on most presidential nominees.” http://politi.co/1fv237w
** Republicans and Democrats finally agree! Congress has bipartisan legislation to repeal Medicare’s broken funding formula. But not if Congress gives up before the March 31 deadline. SGR is the problem; H.R. 4015 and S. 2000 are the solution. FixMedicareNow.org
GOVERNORS: TOUGH ROAD FOR OBAMACARE REPEAL – Steve Peoples and Ken Thomas report for the Associated Press: “The explosive politics of health care have divided the nation, but America’s governors, Republicans and Democrats alike, suggest that President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul is here to stay. While governors from Connecticut to Louisiana sparred Sunday over how best to improve the nation’s economy, governors of both parties shared a far more pragmatic outlook on the controversial program known as ‘Obamacare’ as millions of their constituents begin to be covered. ‘We’re just trying to make the best of a bad situation,’ said Republican Gov. Terry Branstad of Iowa, who called the health care law ‘unaffordable and unsustainable’ yet something he has to implement by law. … [G]overnors from both parties say a full repeal of the law would be complicated at best, if not impossible, as states move forward with implementation and begin covering millions of people…” http://bit.ly/1h52WnS
EGYPT’S MILITARY-BACKED GOVERNMENT RESIGNS – Reuters’ Yasmine Saleh and Asma Alsharif report from Cairo: “Egypt’s government has resigned, the prime minister said on Monday, paving the way for army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to declare his candidacy for president of a strategic U.S. ally gripped by political strife. … For Sisi to run for president he would first need to leave his post as defense minister. ‘This (government resignation) was done as a step that was needed ahead of Sisi’s announcement that he will run for president,’ an Egyptian official said. He told Reuters that the cabinet had resigned en masse as Sisi did not want to appear to be acting alone.” http://reut.rs/1gvZSyC
CLINTON STARS IN GRIMES’S CAMPAIGN – Philip Rucker on A1 of the Washington Post: “During Bill Clinton’s first-inaugural festivities, a 14-year-old girl from Kentucky presented the new president with an honorary bouquet of red roses at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. Two decades later, that girl, Alison Lundergan Grimes, is a candidate to become Kentucky’s first female senator. And Clinton — an uncle figure whom Grimes counts as a friend, mentor and adviser — is playing a starring role in her campaign and will appear at a sold-out Grimes fundraiser Tuesday.
– “As Grimes weighed whether to run for the Senate, Clinton took nearly an hour out of a visit last year to Owensboro, Ky., to huddle privately with her. Hillary Rodham Clinton provided her counsel as well. They both offered their unconditional support and talked about how much fight it will take for a Democrat to unseat Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, a wily campaigner known for vilifying his opponents. ‘I think what the Clinton family, from President Clinton to Secretary Clinton, and I have in common is that we don’t scare easy — no matter the bully,’ Grimes said in an interview. …
– “Grimes is living proof that the Clintons, both now out of office, remain the first family in Democratic politics. At 35, Grimes is just 15 months older than their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and is practically the Clintons’ political offspring. A win in November would demonstrate the appeal of Clintonian centrism in Republican territory.” http://wapo.st/1gv5dpT
UNDER DeMINT, HERITAGE SHIFTS FROM POLICY TO POLITICS – Jennifer Steinhauer and Jonathan Weisman write on A1 of the New York Times: “Not long after Jim DeMint took over the Heritage Foundation last spring, his team summoned the staff for a meeting unlike any the decorous conservative policy organization had ever convened. Music blared in the auditorium. Policy analysts began with a few awkward jokes and then scampered about in a series of skits that laid out the foundation’s goals. Some of the veteran managers of the staid think tank stared on balefully. A new era had arrived. From its inception in 1973, the Heritage Foundation has provided the blueprint for the Republican Party’s ideas in Washington. In doing so, it has proved to be the most durable organization of its kind. But under Mr. DeMint, a South Carolinian who gave up his Senate seat last year to take the helm, Heritage has shifted. Long known as an incubator for policy ideas and the embodiment of the party establishment, it has become more of a political organization feeding off the rising populism of the Tea Party movement.” http://nyti.ms/1fh70fL
GOOD MONDAY MORNING, FEB. 24, 2014, and welcome to The Huddle, your-play-play preview of all the action on Capitol Hill. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to swong@politico.com. If you don’t already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.
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MANY THANKS to my colleagues Ginger Gibson and Seung Min Kim for filling in for me last week.
TODAY IN CONGRESS – The House returns from its Presidents’ Day recess on Tuesday. The Senate is back at 2 p.m. today, at which time Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) will be recognized to read George Washington’s Farewell Address. At 5:30 p.m., the Senate will vote on the nomination of Jeffrey Alker Meyer to be U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Arkansas.
AROUND THE HILL – Sen. Tim Kaine, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and Central and South Asian Affairs, holds a conference call at 4:30 p.m. to discuss his visits to Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon and Egypt. RSVP to amy_dudley@kaine.senate.gov. At 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sens. Tim Scott and Cory Booker and former Sens. Carol Moseley Braun, Roland Burris and William “Mo” Cowan mark Black History Month with a panel titled “Honoring our Past and Celebrating our Future: Discussing Personal Journeys and a Nation’s Progress with America’s Black Senators,” at the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. RSVP to rsvp@scott.senate.gov or Scott_Press@scott.senate.gov by 2 p.m. today. On Thursday morning, Sen. Bob Corker speaks at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel.
SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY
– McCAUL: EXTRADITE ‘EL CHAPO’ – Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is urging Mexico to consider extraditing alleged drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera — also known as El Chapo — to the United States for prosecution, reports POLITICO’s Byron Tau: “I would ask that the Mexicans consider extraditing him to the United States, where he would be put into a super-max prison under tight security where he cannot escape,” McCaul (R-Texas) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” Guzmán was apprehended in a beachfront condo Saturday by Mexican marines and police, aided by U.S. law enforcement agencies. http://politi.co/1cH7sY6
– SEN. JOHN McCAIN said the violent uprising in Ukraine should make Russian President Vladimir Putin “nervous” about his own leadership in Russia,” writes POLITICO’s Trevor Eischen. “They want to be western,” the Arizona Republican, appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said of the Ukrainian people. “They don’t want to be eastern.” http://politi.co/1c0Vgn3
– NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER SUSAN RICE said Sunday she has no regrets about her now-infamous round of TV interviews in 2012 about the attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, Byron Tau writes. Asked by NBC’s “Meet the Press” host David Gregory if she had any regrets about the interviews, Rice replied: “No.” “Because what I said to you that morning, and what I did every day since, was to share the best information that we had at the time,” Rice said. http://politi.co/1nYpl6B
KANSAS SENATE HOPEFUL POSTED GRISLY X-RAY IMAGES – Tim Carpenter writes for the Topeka Capital-Journal: “U.S. Senate candidate Milton Wolf posted a collection of gruesome X-ray images of gunshot fatalities and medical injuries to his Facebook page and participated in online commentary layered with macabre jokes and descriptions of carnage. Wolf, a Johnson County radiologist anchoring a campaign for the Republican nomination with calls for federal heath care reform, said in an interview the medical images were legally uploaded to public social media sites and other online venues for educational purposes. They also served, he said, to demonstrate evil lurking in the world. However, Wolf and others viewing these Facebook postings relentlessly poked fun at the dead or wounded. The gunshot victim, Wolf joked online, wasn’t going to complain about the awkward positioning of his head for an X-ray.” http://bit.ly/1lbAYKy
– Wolf later acknowledged Sunday that he posted “insensitive” comments online, which he described as “mistakes.” James Hohmann in POLITICO: http://politi.co/1gtTwjl
LANDRIEU SEEKS SUPPORT FROM INDEPENDENTS, CONSERVATIVES – The AP’s Bill Barrow in Lafayette, La.: “Democrat Mary Landrieu’s quest for a fourth Senate term will turn on whether she can attract just enough support from independents and Republicans to win in this increasingly conservative state. The daughter and sister of New Orleans mayors, that’s been Landrieu’s re-election strategy since 2002, when her donors included a Baton Rouge physician named Bill Cassidy, now her Republican challenger in this year’s midterm elections. Replicating that winning formula could depend on what matters more to voters: Landrieu’s growing ability to help Louisiana’s oil and gas industry through her recent promotion to chairwoman of the Senate Energy and National Resources Committee or her unapologetic vote for President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. …
-- “In this race, allegiances don’t fall neatly along party lines. ‘I’m a die-hard Republican, but I love Mary Landrieu,’ said Lafayette resident Mark Miller, who owns and runs multiple Louisiana-based companies that drill and offer support services to other energy companies. ‘You can’t overstate what it means for this state to have her experience and influence, especially with the energy chairmanship.’” http://yhoo.it/1k3jixj
SCOTT BROWN, MAN OF MYSTERY – James Hohmann writes for POLITICO: “Scott Brown performed with the band Cheap Trick at a concert in Massachusetts last weekend, strumming his guitar along as they played ‘Surrender.’ Two weeks earlier, a shirtless picture of him at a polar bear swim appeared on the cover of New Hampshire’s largest newspaper. On Thursday, a conservative blog reported that the former senator will keynote an April GOP fundraiser … in Iowa. If Brown plans to challenge Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), something he’s flirted with for the better part of a year now, the former Massachusetts senator has chosen a very unusual way to lay the groundwork. But those who know the 54-year-old Republican say it doesn’t mean he won’t. He’s just a one-man band who will do it on his own terms and timetable.
– “Half a dozen people who have spoken with Brown recently about his future say he is genuinely conflicted about whether to run. Several of them said Brown thinks he has until April to make up his mind, or possibly even closer to the June 13 filing deadline. But another person familiar with his thinking cautioned an announcement might come as early as the first week of March. … Unique, detached, aloof — call it what you like. ‘Doing what I said I would do,’ Brown emailed POLITICO nonchalantly last week, in response to the latest query about what he’s up to. ‘I’m settling in, adjusting, introducing myself and helping … Keep you posted.’” http://politi.co/1pi5C5m
THE POLITICAL AFTERLIFE – The University of Minnesota’s Eric Ostermeier writes on his “Smart Politics” blog that a dozen retiring, ex- or deceased members of Congress still have active campaign websites: “One announced his retirement last September. Another died in October. One resigned last week. A dozen members of Congress that aren’t running for reelection still have active campaign websites – that accept financial donations … A Smart Politics analysis finds that through February 23rd, a dozen U.S. Representatives from the 113th Congress who have announced their retirements, resigned, or died in office still have campaign websites that actively solicit campaign contributions. The most eyebrow-raising among these is the reelection website of former 22-term Florida Republican Bill Young. Young died last October 18th and a special election to fill his seat will be held in less than a month.” http://bit.ly/MnT0K6
CURTAIN CLOSES ON SOCHI, RUSSIA BREATHES SIGH OF RELIEF – Sarah Lyall writes on A1 of the NYT: “Russia had so much to prove at the Winter Games. Was spending however-many billions of dollars to build an Olympics-industrial complex from scratch on the edge of the Black Sea worth it? How could the country overcome a thicket of potential problems: security worries, logistical obstacles, weather annoyances and the darkening specter of revolution in nearby Ukraine? The closing ceremony on Sunday night was advertised as a celebration of Russian culture and heritage: a grand party to show off the work of distinguished Russian musicians, dancers, artists and authors through the centuries. But it seemed as much a great sigh of happy relief as anything else. Russia had done it. It had held an Olympics that were safe and secure and that, thrillingly to the home fans, demonstrated the restoration of Russia’s athletic might. Four years after finishing the Vancouver Games with less than half as many medals as the United States, Russia won the most: 33. Almost overnight, it seemed, the mood in Russia shifted, from a kind of grumbling fatalism to a burst of national pride.” http://nyti.ms/1bE45Tq
FRIDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – Todd Metcalf was the first to correctly answer that John Kerry is the current sitting Cabinet member who received a degree from Boston College.
TODAY’S TRIVIA – With spring training underway, Claude Marx pitches a baseball question: The grandchild of what presidential aide turned secretary of state became an owner of a New York City sports team? Name the secretary of state, the team owner and team name. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at swong@politico.com.
GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says “Sign Up.” http://www.politico.com/huddle/
** After years of saying “wait until next year,” Congress finally has bipartisan legislation to repeal Medicare’s broken funding formula. This is the news seniors have been waiting for. But we’re not over the finish line yet. Congress must act by March 31st to avoid another costly temporary patch. Let’s pass H.R. 4015/S. 2000, scrap the broken SGR formula and fix Medicare once and for all! FixMedicareNow.org
They have closed the commissaries at all military bases because of the shutdown. They have never done this in a government shutdown before. Why are they doing it this time? They are only doing this for effect.